An inverse assiciation between light or moderate alcohol consumpton and coronary heart disease has been demonstrated in epidemiologic studies of diverse disign. Conversely, alcohol consumption is polisively associated with some other diseases and adverse health outcomes. The overall benefits and risks and possible trade-offs of moderate drinking for the population as a whole and for specific subgroups is not well defined. We propose an examination of the relationship between alsohol comsumption and health outcomes using several large national representative data sets: the national Health Interview Sruvey (NHIS) for the yers 1987, 1988, 1990, and 1991 and the multiple cause of death data available for participants of these surveys; The First national Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES- I) and the Epidemiologic Follofw-up Study; and The Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-II) and the Mortality follwo-up Study. These data sets will contain information on over 173,000 participants from the US and will Constitute one of the largest multi-ethnic cohort studies available. We will examine four inter-related issues: 1. The relationship of alcohol consumption (ex-drinker, abstainer, and amount of drink) to other baseline characteristics such as age, race, sex,smoking, socio-economic status, dietary intake, physical activity, prevalence of diseases, and health status. This analysis will help us to identify the potential confounders and/or effect modifiers in the analysis of alcohol and health outcomes. 2. The overall benefits and bisks of alcohol drinking. After examining the association between alcohol consumption and each individual end point (coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, cancer, accident, etc.), we will evaluate all cause mortality and the life-expectancy associated with different levels of alcohol consumption. 3. Optimal range of drinking. Based on differing methodologies, we will estimate the level of alcohol associated with minimum mortality and establish confidence limits for these estimates. 4. Alcohol-disease relationship in population subgroups. These large datasets allow analyses to examine whether thebenefits or risks of the alcohol-diease relationship varies by age, sex, race,and some conditions such as obestity, smoking, and hypertension status. The proposed data resources offer a number of important strengths for the study including a large sample size, representativeness, and ethnic diversity. These analyses will offer important new insights in identifying the tradeoffs involved in an individual~s decision about drinking and provide a solid base for fornulating public health policies.